Demos, Panels & Events

The master schedule can be seen on the Schedule page.

ARTIST DEMONSTRATIONS

MEZZOTINT: INVIGORATING A TRADITIONAL METHODJULIE NISKANEN

Julie
Niskanen will present an introduction to the beautiful process of
mezzotint, covering all facets of the technique from rocking the plate,
to image transfer, and the sharpening of a rocker. This demonstration
moves you through scraping and burnishing, inks & papers for
mezzotint, inking & wiping the plate and the multiple plate
process.

Niskanen
was born in Greenville, South Carolina. She received her B.F.A. from
Iowa State University, and her M.F.A. from the University of South
Dakota. Julie lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she works as a
professional artist and teaches and conducts workshops.

Her
award-winning work has been exhibited extensively in national and
international exhibitions, and is in many private and public
collections. Julie is also part of the Artspace Artists Association in
Raleigh, Davidson Galleries in Seattle, and the Washington Printmakers
Gallery in Washington, D.C.

EXTREME CHINE-COLLÉCOLE ROGERS

Cole
Rogers, Artistic Director and Master Printer at Highpoint Center for
Printmaking in Minneapolis, will demonstrate the registration and
mounting of over sized chine-collé sheets.

Rogers
manages Highpoint’s artistic production, long-term creative vision and
stature within the artistic community. Highpoint Editions print
projects have been acquired by many institutions including; The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art New York, The
National Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of
American Art.

COLOR PHOTOGRAVUREDAVID STORDHAL and XAVIER TAVERA

David
Stordahl, master printer at Trykkeriet Center for Contemporary
Printmaking in Bergen, Norway, will be working in collaboration with
artist Xavier Tavera throughout the conference, editioning a 4-color
photogravure. Stordhal will discuss and demonstrate the unique color
photogravure process: from making the positives, to processing,
developing and printing the plates, to reproduce a continuously toned
photographic image.

ASPHALTUM LITHOGRAPHY MANIERE NOIRE MICHAEL BARNES

Michael
Barnes will present the reductive and additive process of working with
asphaltum on lithographic stone to produce multiple color images. This
process is a variation of the manière noire technique. A range of
techniques involving reductive drawing and reductive color printing
will be presented. This process is commonly used in Eastern European
countries, but is not well known in the United States.

Michael
Barnes received his MFA from the University of Iowa and his BFA from
Alma College, in Michigan. He has participated in a number of
residencies including the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium; The Bemis
Center of Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska; Anchor Graphics,
Columbia College, Chicago; and the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North
Dakota. His work has been exhibited in over 100 competitive group
exhibitions since 1996, including exhibitions in Wales, Poland, Taiwan,
Estonia, Japan, Romania, Finland, and the Republic of Macedonia. His
awards include an Illinois Arts Council Grant and an Illinois Arts
Council Finalist Award. His work is included in many collections,
including the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, The Royal Museum of Art,
Antwerp, Belgium, the City of Vaasa, Finland, The Mary and Leigh Block
Museum of Art at Northwestern University, The Plains Art Museum, Fargo,
North Dakota, and many university and private collections. .His
Selected solo exhibitions include Street Level Gallery Highwood,
Illinois; the OIA - Gallery 402, New York City; Anchor Graphics in
Chicago; Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, Northern Kentucky
University; St. Cloud State University, Minnesota. Recent group
exhibitions include “Introductions”, Davidson Galleries, Seattle,
“Bookplates”, Printworks, Chicago, "Drawing VII", Koplin Del Rio
Gallery, West Hollywood, "Outlaw Printmakers", (a traveling exhibition
which has shown at Big Cat Gallery, New York, Dennis Morgan Gallery,
Kansas City, and Kelly Rae Theiss Gallery, Minneapolis), "New Prints",
International Print Center, New York.

DRUM LEAF BINDINGJANA PULLMAN

Based on an Atlas from the 17th
century, this innovative, glued binding is an ideal way to turn your
artwork into a book format. It requires no sewing so there is no thread
to interfere with any Drum Leaf bound image or text that crosses
through the fold of the page. Each folded two-page spread can be a
print, painting or digital image that is glued to the back of the next
page, producing a lightweight and flexible book.

Presenter
Jana Pullman is a book artist, binder and conservator, living in
Minneapolis and has been involved in the book arts since 1983. She
received her M.F.A in 1988 from University of Wisconsin-Madison, after
which she supervised the Repair Unit for the General Collection at the
Marriott Library at the University of Utah, focusing on conservation
work. Pullman also served as the Apprentice/Manager at the University
of Iowa Oakdale Paper Facility where she made handmade papers tailored
for book and paper conservation and helped with the ongoing research.She
is an adjunct faculty member in the Art Department at the University of
Minnesota and an instructor at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She
also teaches workshops throughout the country. She operates Western
Slope Bindery in Minneapolis.

The
Printmaking Pig Circus and the Dirty Printmakers of America will
present a hands-on printmaking ordeal through screen and relief
methods. Using the Drive By Press model of event printing attendees
will be able to print their own poster and or shirt.

10
Years ago John Hancock and Joseph Velasquez formed the Dirty
Printmakers of America, a rogue group of outlaw printmakers that have
tarnished the Ivory Tower of tradition and expectation in their attempt
to demystify process, and democratically present printmaking to the
masses. The DPA has inspired such ideas as Drive By Press as well as
other guerilla printmaking groups all over the country. Minneapolis and
St. Paul are the next targets.

The
lead team of printers will be Joseph Velaquez, John S. Hancock, Emily
Arthur Douglass of the University of North Florida, Xenia Fedorchenko
of Lamar University and Curtis Jones and Marwin Begaye of University of
Oklahoma.

Preston Lawing is the Chair of Art and Design at Saint Mary's University of MN. In
2008, He was chosen to represent the United States in the Nagasawa Art
Park / Artist in Residence in Awaji-Shima, Japan. His woodblock prints
reflect the respect of the traditional Moku Hanga prints, as well as
contemporary methods and materials. He is a regular instructor at the
Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and exhibits nationally and
internationally.

ENGRAVING IN THE 21ST CENTURYJAMES EHLERS

James
Ehlers, Professor at Emporia State University, demonstrates traditional
engraving processes, tools and the printing of engravings.

Ehlers
received a BA from McNeese State University (2000), MA from Bradley
University (2002) and MFA from the University of Florida (2005). He
remains active in exhibiting work and has been in over a combined 100
national, international, competitive, invitational, touring and solo
exhibits around the world.

Ehlers'
has conducted engraving demonstrations and workshops at Nicholls State
University, the Kansas City Art Institute, the University of Kansas,
Iowa State University and at the IMPACT Conference in Bristol, England.
His work is in a number of collections, including the Spencer Museum
of Art and the Engraving Museum of Douro, Alijo, Portugal.

SUICIDE PRINT SERIGRAPHYNELSON EDI HOHMAN

Nelson Hohmann will show how to print using recycled areas of a serigraphic stencil,and how to utilize a range of positive and negative color areas in the process.

Nelson
Edi Hohman hails from Curitiba, capitol city of Paraná, in the South of
Brazil. He has been an active participant of the Curitiban art
community since the 1980's, and the Solar do Barão municipal
printmaking studio. After graduating from Universidade Federal do
Paraná, Universidade de Tuituti and Escola de Belas Artes he became
professor of serigraphy and relief printmaking at the Solar, exhibiting
work in Brazilian cultural institutions and museums in Rio de Janeiro,
São Paulo, and Brasilia.

LET THE MACHINES DO ALL THE WORK!ROBIN SCHWARTZMAN and MARK KNIERIMThis
demonstration will present an overview of how both a laser cutter and
CNC Router can be utilized to create a variety of print matrices.
Viewers will learn how to digitally fabricate plates for etching and
relief processes. Templates designed in Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw
and EnRoute4 will be sent to the laser cutter and Router for precision
cutting and engraving. Once cut, the plates will be hand printed to
show the variety of results that can be achieved..Robin Schwartzman is a University of Minnesota Graduate Student in Printmaking, and has her B.F.A. from Syracuse University.

Mark
Knierim has his M.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design
and his B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the
Facilities Supervisor and Technical Coordinator at the University of
Minnesota Department of Art.

PANELS AND DIALOGS

”Printermedia: Teaching printmaking within an intermedia context TIMEThis
panel will focus on strategies of teaching long-established printmaking
systems within the framework of an intermedia pedagogy. This word
intermedia (meaning lying or occurring between media) sets into motion
an avalanche of possibilities for printmaking to intersect other media
and concepts, often acting as a conduit or even destabilizing and
expanding the cannon¹s of the medium. The artists/designers selected
for this discussion have attempted to, in their classroom/studio
practices, move the frontier of printmaking towards an examination of a
formal system as a carrier of theoretical discourse.

Nicole Hand, Professor, Murray State University, Murray, KYNicole Hand received her BFA from the University of South Dakota, VermillionSD and her MFA from The University of Miami, Miami, FL.

Darryl Lauster, Assistant Professor, UT Arlington, Arlington, TXDarryl Lauster received his BFA from San Diego State University, San Diego,CA and his MFA from the University of Houston, Houston, TX

Robert Grame, Associate Professor, UT Arlington, Arlington, TXRobert Grame received his BFA and MFA from Kansas State University,Manhattan, KS

Ben Rinehart, Assistant Professor, Lawrence University, Appleton, WIBen Rinehart received his BFA from the Herron School of Art, Indianapolis,IN and his MFA from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.

UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTEDThis
panel addresses the ways in which high, low, mixed and obsolete
technologies help shape the practices and possibilities of three
print-oriented art making groups, including Florida State University’s
Small Craft Advisory Press/formLab, Preacher’s Biscuits Books and
Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA). Each
organization, represented by its co-directors, will speak to how the
choosing of technological opportunities and constraints functions both
to shape the work they publish and create, and to propel their
conceptual projects forward. The panel hopes to share its experiences
and to demonstrate that a conscious and considered approach to adopting
a level (or levels!) of technology for art making is of much greater
importance than any particular technology itself.

Denise
Bookwalter makes art with paper. Her prints, books and objects are
exhibited nationally and internationally. She holds an MFA in
printmaking from Indiana University and is currently an assistant
professor at Florida State University were she is also a founding
member and the director of Small Craft Advisory Press.

Chad
Eby investigates crash sites at the intersections of art and
technology, and sometimes makes machines that, in turn, make strange
noises. He holds an MFA in Imaging and Digital Art from the
University of Maryland Baltimore County and is currently an assistant
professor at Florida State University.

Kristen
Merola is the Assistant Director of VSW and cofounder of Preacher's
Biscuit Books. She has an MFA in Visual Studies from VSW and a BFA in
Film from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Kris has exhibited her
personal film and video, print, and book works nationally. Her art also
encompasses publishing books by others and those titles are in many
private and public museum and library collections worldwide. She
recently received an artist residency award from Small Craft Advisory
Press at Florida State University to produce a collaborative artists'
book and has been invited to speak on that project at conferences in
2010 and 2011. http://www.kbluem.com,
http://www.preachersbiscuitbooks.com/

Tate
Shaw is the Director of Visual Studies Workshop, a center for the media
arts in Rochester, NY with an MFA program in Visual Studies. He is
co-founder of Preacher's Biscuit Books, publishing artists' books since
2005. Shaw's artists' books are exhibited and collected internationally
and he writes and curates exhibitions of artists' books, photography,
and new media.

Emily
Larned is an artist, writer, designer, and letterpress printer working
in Bridgeport CT. She is the sole proprietor of Red Charming
(www.redcharming.com) and co-founder of Impractical Labor in Service of
the Speculative Arts (www.impractical-labor.org). Her work is
internationally collected and exhibited and she has taught and lectured
widely. She received her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2008 and is now
Chair of Graphic Design at Shintaro Akatsu School of Design (SASD) at
the University of Bridgeport.

Bridget
Elmer is an artist, bookmaker and letterpress printer working in
Asheville NC. She is the proprietor of Flatbed Splendor
(www.flatbedsplendor.com) and co-founder of Impractical Labor in
Service of the Speculative Arts (www.impractical-labor.org). She
received her MFA in the Book Arts from the University of Alabama in
2010, and she will graduate with her second Masters in Library and
Information Studies in 2011. Having recently taught as an Adjunct
Professor at Florida State University and a Visiting Art Professor at
Colorado College, Bridget currently serves as an Instructor at
Asheville BookWorks.

No School, School, & LetterpressWhen
Rachel began teaching at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s
University in 2007, people kept saying she had to meet Mary Bruno.
Rachel, then 29, thought a letterpress printer in tiny St. Joseph, MN,
would be “old school.” As it turned out, Mary and Rachel had age in
common more than anything else. Thus, they will focus on their “no
school, school” paths to letterpress and “St. Joe.” Though both have
printmaking BAs, Mary worked fifty odd jobs before approaching
letterpress via her late father, Don; and internships with Bill Moran,
Jim Sherraden, and Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.. Rachel went from one
internship with fine press printer Gaylord Schanilec, to an MFA, to six
years of college teaching. Mary and Rachel will show their
collaborations and discuss courage gained, assumptions shed, and
commonalities discovered—especially ties to the past and future via
mentors and students.

Rachel
Melis is an Assistant Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict
and Saint John's University in Minnesota. She received her BA at
Grinnell College and her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Her books, prints and installations use letterpress-printed texts,
carved textures, and vintage textiles to convey the processes of
carrying, flowing, fretting, and settling.

I,
Mary Bruno, am a letterpress printer in St. Joseph, MN. I received my
BFA in printmaking from St. Cloud State University and have been
hanging out with printers ever since. I have created a line of
irreverent greeting cards that has helped me turn my passion into a
business. My art derives from my personality, my love for letterpress,
and my network of anyone or anything connected to letterpress.

Old War New WarThis
panel will address the subject of war, looking back and looking at the
current state of war. Panelist’s topics will be divergent from one
another and far reaching on the subject. The panel will include an
investigation into the relevance of print lore generated by past wars
to our contemporary responses to conflict and war. Panelists will
tackle this difficult subject through recent scholarship concerning
historic representations of war as well and by considering contemporary
prints dealing with current issues. Special attention will be given to
the relationships between historical and contemporary printed art and
the complex relationships between the making of images of war and their
use and miss-use in various social contexts.

Michael
Krueger is a father, an artist and a teacher. In 1990 Michael earned a
BFA from the University of South Dakota and in 1993 he graduated with
an MFA from the University of Notre Dame. In 1995, Michael moved to
Lawrence for a teaching post at the University of Kansas. Michael’s
creative research has taken him all over the globe from Asuncion,
Paraguay to the United Arab Emeritus, to Scotland, England, Belgium,
France and Italy. He has recently had solo shows at Sunday L.E.S., New
York, NY, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA & Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, TN. His work has been included in group
exhibitions at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY,
Ambacher Contemporary, Munich, Germany, Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK, and International Print Center New York, (Chelsea) New
York, NY among others. http://michaelkrueger.us/Stephen
Goddard has dedicated his career to the study of printed art. After two
years of research in Belgium, and the successful completion of his
doctoral work at the University of Iowa he enjoyed a post-doctorate
position at the Yale University Art Gallery. In the course of his
twenty-five years at the Spencer Museum of Art he has organized dozens
of exhibitions and offered many courses on the history of printmaking.
He was, for four years, president of the Print Council of America. In
addition to his publications, Goddard conceived and continues to
maintain an online database of catalogues raisonné for print research.
Trained in printmaking as well as in art history, Goddard’s current
interests include exploring connections between the arts and sciences.

Tim
Dooley received his MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in
1997. He now teaches at the University of Northern Iowa, where,
ignoring pleas from the Office of Homeland Security, he has been
granted the esteemed rank of Associate Professor with tenure. One of
the lesser known ‘Inlaw’ printmakers, he has exhibited his work all
across the country by himself, with just a few others, or with great
unwashed masses of artists. Professor Dooley has received a number of
awards (some cash!) at national and international juried exhibitions.
He is best known for his “Prinstallation” Mixed-Product, an
out-of-control graphic entity that evolved/mutated from 1998-2009.
This body of work was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts
for a Challenge America: Reaching Every Community Grant. His work was
recently published in the textbook Printmaking: A Complete Guide to
Materials and Processes, Fick & Grabowski.Adrianne Herman (see Ground Up)

MFAs in the ‘00sFour
recent MFA graduates discuss their work and practices, while also
presenting their perspectives on the current state of printmaking and
their hopes for its future. Held in conjunction with the MFAs in the‘00s
exhibition at Concordia University, St. Paul, this forum will consider
what makes a graduate program strong, how emerging artists remain
focused and supported, and the concerns of new faculty, among other
topics. A cross-country mobile press, a tenure-track teaching gig
within 5 years, corporate sponsorship, art-world “success”…anything is
possible with an MFA in tow. Or is it?

Based
in New York City, Melinda Yale (chair) has exhibited her work both
nationally and internationally. Her artists books are represented in
special collections throughout the country. Yale has received
fellowships from BRIC Media Arts Brooklyn, the Lower East Side
Printshop, Women’s Studio Workshop and Anderson Ranch Art Center.
Melinda completed her MFA as a Hixson Lied Fellow at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln and her BA at Carleton College.

James
Ehlers is the Don and Mary Glaser Assistant Professor of Engraving Arts
at Emporia State University in Emporia, KS. ESU is the only school in
the country that offers a BFA in Engraving Arts. James attended McNeese
State University and Bradley University, and earned his MFA from the
University of Florida.

Carrie
Lingscheit originally hails from South Dakota, where she received a BFA
from the University of South Dakota in 2006. Through exposure to
several Frogman’s Print and Paper Workshops, as well as to numerous
conferences and exhibitions, she has developed an incurable passion for
printmaking. She currently resides in Athens, Ohio, where she recently
completed her MFA and continues to teach print courses at Ohio
University.

Joseph Velasquez completed his MFA in 2005 at the University of Wisconsin,Madison.
He is a co-founder of both Drive By Press and the Dirty Printmakers of
America. Velasquez is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
at Auburn University, in Alabama.

Ground Up: Teaching Printmaking in the 21st CenturyThis
panel discusses studio-based pedagogical methods for introducing print
to younger generations in today’s “post-medium” art world. The term
“post-medium” is not meant as an assault on conventional techniques
and processes, but quite the opposite by nurturing an attitude that
expands the definition, audience, and possibilities of “the medium”.
The printmaking classroom will be framed as a think-tank space where
technique and history meet new technologies, contemporary aesthetic
strategies, and theme-based approaches to teaching. Questions will
include: How do we define the changing role and relevance of
printmaking in the digital age? How do well-worn concepts like the
“copy” or “impression” reinvent themselves? How do we address both
technique and “making art” in the student printer’s studio? How does
programming supplement classroom activity?

Natasha Pestich (chair)is
a local Minneapolis artist, who currently holds the position of
Assistant Professor and Area Coordinator for the Print Paper Book Area
in the Fine Arts Department at the Minneapolis College of Art and
Design, where she has spent the past fours year developing innovative
print-based curriculum. She works primarily in installation, both
site-specific and non-site, while nurturing arts-based community
development partnerships. Her work has been showcased in both
alternative spaces like the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Michigan, and the Generator Gallery in Scotland in addition to urban sidewalks and local community centers.

Jon
Swindler is currently an Assistant Professor in the Lamar Dodd School
of Art at the University of Georgia where he teaches in the Printmaking
and Book Arts area. Over the last several years, Jon has exhibited his
work in numerous solo, competitive and invitational exhibitions
throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has also performed
visiting artist workshops and lectures at various institutions,
including: The Art Academy of Cincinnati, The Academy of Visual Arts,
Ghent Belgium and the University of New Orleans. Jon resides in Athens,
GA with his wife Stephanie and son Willem.

Althea
Murphy-Price has shown in several solo and group shows in Philadelphia
PA, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Chicago,
Atlanta and China. Some of these galleries include Artforms Gallery in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she was awarded First Prize Winner of
the Annual Emerging Artist Exhibition, Artspace Gallery in Richmond,
VA, and The Print Center Gallery of Philadelphia. She currently holds
the position of Assistant Professor, at the School of Art, University
of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Adriane
Herman investigates consumption through appropriated imagery and media
ranging from archival to edible. Her independent efforts to normalize
consumption of fine art dovetail with collaborative efforts such as
Slop Art. Herman has explored content in context with BFA and MFA
students at Kansas City Art Institute and Maine College of Art, where
she is currently Associate Professor of Printmaking / New Media and
Foundation Department Chair. Sites of recent and upcoming solo
exhibitions include Western Exhibitions (Chicago); Center for Maine
Contemporary Art; the Ulrich Museum (Wichita); and Whitney Artworks
(Portland). Recent group exhibitions include those at Adam Baumgold
Gallery (New York); The Dalarnas Museum (Falun, Sweden); Portland
Museum of Art; The International Print Center (New York).

“New and Old Generations: Teaching Printmaking”

The
session will examine the relevance of an historical self-awareness in
the teaching of printmaking today. The history of printmaking has been
marked by the ways that it has changed and evolved to reflect
aesthetic, social, economic and commercial changes in the graphic arts.
Through most of its history, the guild model was used in the training
of printers, who worked as apprentices and journeymen before achieving
a level of “mastery.” Today the education of printmakers is typically
done in the context of college and universities, and with an effort to
educate rather than train the student artist. The session will address
a variety of questions related to the education of printmakers and
attitudes towards the discipline. It will also include analysis of data
from a survey of artists working in print media that was distributed
through the MAPC and SGCI list servers.

Jack
Damer (co-chair) is a Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison where he has taught printmaking, primarily lithography, drawing
and seminars since 1965. He received his MFA and BFA degrees from
Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught and conducted workshops at
over 75 institutions. His exhibition record includes over 150 national
and international group and invitational shows.Beauvais
Lyons (co-chair) is a Professor of Art at the University of Tennessee
in Knoxville where he has taught printmaking since 1985. Lyons received
his MFA degree from Arizona State University in 1983 and his BFA degree
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980. Lyons’ one-person
(mock-academic) exhibitions have been presented at over 50 museums and
galleries in the United States and abroad.